Property tax exemptions for disabled veterans, senior citizens and for low-income families participating in some home ownership programs are under review by the Kingston Common Council. The proposals are the latest effort by the city to take advantage of state laws allowing communities to opt in to various targeted tax breaks.

In a Jan. 30 letter to lawmakers, Mayor Steve Noble asked lawmakers to opt into a new state law that allows taxing jurisdictions to offer total exemption on property taxes to some disabled veterans. To qualify for the tax break, recipients must have a 100 percent service-connected disability rating from the Veterans Administration and the tax-exempt property must be their primary residence. Veterans must file with the city assessor’s office to claim the exemption.

Council Majority Leader Michele Hirsch (D-Ward 9), meanwhile, has introduced her own legislation which would add limited-income disabled adults to an existing tax exemption for senior citizens while raising the income limits for the program. Currently, to qualify for the program homeowners must have an annual income of no more than $29,000. Hirsch’s amendment would raise the limit to $50,000 and include a graduated tax exemption ranging from 50 percent to those making $41,000 or less to 5 percent for those making from $49,100 to $49,999.

Another Noble-sponsored tax exemption would benefit people who got their homes through programs like the Kingston City Land Bank, which acquires vacant properties from the city, rehabilitates them and sells them at below-market cost to low- and moderate-income first-time homebuyers.

The program would grant owners of those properties a 50 percent property tax exemption. To qualify, owners’ homes must be subject to a restrictive covenant or other regulatory agreement that limits how much they can sell the property for. The KCLB and similar groups typically include deed restrictions to ensure the homes will remain affordable and not be flipped by owners who bought at below market prices.

“This exemption will ensure that qualified households pay property taxes commensurate with their actual purchase price,” Noble wrote in a letter to council President Andrea Shaut. “It will also support and incentivize organizations such as the Land Bank, RUPCO and Taproot Community Land Trust, all of which are working to expand affordable homeownership opportunities in Kingston.”

The council’s Laws and Rules Committee with discuss the veterans and senior citizen exemption proposals when it convenes on Feb. 18. The Community Development and Housing Committee will take up the proposed exemption for exemptions on land bank properties at its Feb. 24 meeting.